ADVERTISEMENT

Great Book Out Based On Giles And Ragsdale

kwhs95fan

VaPreps All Region
Gold Member
Oct 17, 2006
6,885
3,142
113
Always have been a huge fan of the single wing and have a small library of books on it as well as the double wing. Came across a book the other night on Amazon based on Ragsdales first 3 years at Giles and he turned them from a doormat into state champions and how the school went from having no spirit to everybody and their brother wearing red bandanas and anything with Giles on it. The book uses fictitious names but does use the real names of all the schools and even touches on how the single wing emblem on the helmet came about. I got it yesterday and started reading it last night late and have already finished it. The name of the book is Single Wingin and even has the Giles single wing emblem on the cover and is written by Vic Edwards. Just thought I'd mention it to anyone who may be interested
 
  • Like
Reactions: uvacavs1
Always have been a huge fan of the single wing and have a small library of books on it as well as the double wing. Came across a book the other night on Amazon based on Ragsdales first 3 years at Giles and he turned them from a doormat into state champions and how the school went from having no spirit to everybody and their brother wearing red bandanas and anything with Giles on it. The book uses fictitious names but does use the real names of all the schools and even touches on how the single wing emblem on the helmet came about. I got it yesterday and started reading it last night late and have already finished it. The name of the book is Single Wingin and even has the Giles single wing emblem on the cover and is written by Vic Edwards. Just thought I'd mention it to anyone who may be interested

Interesting. Thanks.
I'm so old I played there before they ran the single wing. And, Giles WAS a doormat in those days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kwhs95fan
Good stuff... Thanks for the post. Read about it on Amazon, here was the description:

"Early in the 1900’s, a coach named Glenn “Pop” Warner was coaching the Carlisle Indians. He had a player named Jim Thorpe with such raw talent that he formulated an offense that was later called the ‘Single-Wing’. Prior to the 1950’s, most colleges ran this offense until the advent of the T-formation late in the 1940’s. The Pittsburg Steelers gave up the single-wing for the T-formation in 1952. But the single-wing is not completely dead. It is still run by a small group of teams across the country, mostly at the high school level. Before Stephen Ragsdale and the Giles Spartans, there was his dad Harry Ragsdale (The Coach) running the Single-Wing offense back in 1931 at the other Giles County school, Narrows High School. The Green Wave compiled five unbeaten seasons under Harry, including a 28-0 record in his last three years on the job from 1960-62. Coach Stephen C. Ragsdale (Coach Stevens) was named the head football coach for the Spartans of Giles High School in 1978. His only experience with football was hanging around the football field as a kid with his dad and watching and learning about the Single-Wing offense his dad hung on to, from the old days. Could and would Coach Ragsdale dare install his dad’s offense at Giles? Could he expect success from a formation that even the Steelers gave up on more than a quarter of a century ago? Giles was not a football school. In fact, they had only had a couple of winning seasons in the schools nearly 20 years of existence. He dug in his cleats, determined to turn losers into winners, and at least develop some pride in a school and community, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, that was long overdue."
 
  • Like
Reactions: kwhs95fan
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT